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URGENT IF YOU POST ARTICLES you are courting lawsuits/fines

Newspaper Chain’s New Business Plan: Copyright Suits

Wired
2010-07-23

Steve Gibson has a plan to save the media world’s financial crisis — and it’s not the iPad.

Borrowing a page from patent trolls, the CEO of fledgling Las Vegas-based Righthaven has begun buying out the copyrights to newspaper content for the sole purpose of suing blogs and websites that re-post those articles without permission. And he says he’s making money.

“We believe it’s the best solution out there,” Gibson says. “Media companies’ assets are very much their copyrights. These companies need to understand and appreciate that those assets have value more than merely the present advertising revenues.”

Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson is embarking on a copyright trolling litigation campaign

Gibson’s vision is to monetize news content on the backend, by scouring the internet for infringing copies of his client’s articles, then suing and relying on the harsh penalties in the Copyright Act — up to $150,000 for a single infringement — to compel quick settlements. Since Righthaven’s formation in March, the company has filed at least 80 federal lawsuits against website operators and individual bloggers who’ve re-posted articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, his first client.

Now he’s talking expansion. The Review-Journal’s publisher, Stephens Media in Las Vegas, runs over 70 other newspapers in nine states, and Gibson says he already has an agreement to expand his practice to cover those properties. (Stephens Media declined comment, and referred inquiries to Gibson.)

Hundreds of lawsuits, he says, are already in the works by year’s end. “We perceive there to be millions, if not billions, of infringements out there,” he says.

Continues...
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/copyright-trolling-for-dollars/

Comments:

...Steve Gibson has become a “douchebag” and a pariah and a bottom feeder and a stain on the profession, but he will also become very wealthy for doing very little. There’s lots of other professions that should be culled because their members take care of themselves and their pocket books at the expense of the greater community. For what it’s worth, I also understand from intellectual property attorneys in Las Vegas that Steve Gibson was a total “douchebag” well before he concocted Righthaven.

So, if you want to stop these “nuisance” law suits (and that is truly what they are), and keep the likes of Steve Gibson from lining their wallets, petition your federal delegation to update the copyright statutes to: 1) mandate a “take down” letter before any lawsuit can be filed, with penalties attached to plaintiffs who file before doing so; and 2) delete the automatic entitlement to attorney’s fees. In the meantime, quit cutting and pasting and you will prevent Steve Gibson from earning additional money to get rid of that second chin.

Posted by: CptObvious | 07/23/10 | 1:04 pm |
Just when you think America can’t sink any lower…

Posted by: CandyMan | 07/23/10 | 1:13 pm |
@bop, you are right. Posting the link isn’t going to get anyone in trouble; as much as the shaggy haired liberals here want Drudge and Breitbart to go away because they expose the left’s hypocrisy (see story today on Drudge about John Kerry parking his yacht in RI to avoid MA taxes – too much fun). There is a ‘public good’ clause in the fair use rule. In addition to news reporting. This guy is in the same league as the RIAA shaking down teens and grandmas for cash.

Posted by: dedhead66 | 07/23/10 | 2:46 pm |
I guess the ambulance chasing boom has died down so now the lawyers will be going after so-called copyright infringement.

Posted by: lukos69 | 07/23/10 | 3:00 pm |
Douchebag spouting douchery and dressed in a douchbag’s uniform. Seriously…all he needs are the off-color French cuffs & collar to look like a bigger douchebag. His self-congratulatory bragging about making money off of lawsuits leads me to believe this bottom-feeder would sue his own mother if he could make a buck. Vegas is the perfect place for him and his goons.

Posted by: mjwanser | 07/23/10 | 3:02 pm |
My wife had an interview with this guy. She said he was the biggest douche she ever met. He had porn all over his office. He kept talking about how famous he was. He was wearing a vest that said “classic couture” on the back. Needless to say she had no desire to work for him. We’d rather starve to death.

Posted by: JAL | 07/23/10 | 4:17 pm |
I looked at one suit (which the owner had not been served with at the time — just saw it through a reporter’s tip).

Gibson wants the website’s domain name plus a ton of $$.
He wants the identity of these people who have worked hard and honestly to establish an online identity.

That makes Gibson, in my eyes, an extortionist.

And you guys who are using him? Kiss your internet presence good-bye. Enjoy your dirty money.


Posted by: TJP | 07/23/10 | 6:09 pm |
If the lawsuits were reasonable and only targeted against people who pasted entire articles or large parts of articles, I’d be in favor of this. And it would be a big boost for newspapers with quality content.

However, if what other posters are saying is true, he’s targeting people who just post a teaser, and he’s going for settlements vastly larger than the “offense” warrants.

As soon as people find out which news sources are selling to him, there will be an immediate backlash in the form of Internet-wide blacklists, and it will be the death knell for the news sources as they are immediately replaced by more reasonable journalists. Let’s face it, suing for ridiculous amounts has not saved the music industry, and it’s not going to cut down on piracy in the gaming industry either. Different business models are needed, not more exaggerated penalties (just like raising taxes while spending like a drunken sailor won’t save the US economy).

Posted by: V01D | 07/22/10 | 5:47 pm |
You think this is bad?
Wait. Just wait until the ACTA kicks in. The end of an open and free information network is looming.


Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/copyright-trolling-for-dollars/#ixzz0uavkX1do